The Cantongqi (), or Sandōkai, is a poem by the eighth Chinese Zen ancestor
Shitou Xiqian (Sekito Kisen, 700–790) and a fundamental text of the
Caodong (
Sōtō
Sōtō Zen or is the largest of the three traditional sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (the others being Rinzai school, Rinzai and Ōbaku). It is the Japanese line of the Chinese Caodong school, Cáodòng school, which was founded during the ...
) school of
Chan (
Zen
Zen (; from Chinese: ''Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka phil ...
), chanted daily in temples throughout the world.
Title
The poem's title, "參同契", is pronounced ''Cāntóngqì'' in
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...
or ''Sandōkai'' in
Japanese. The characters, in particular the first, 參 (''cān'' or ''san''), can have several quite different meanings, and therefore the poem's title is susceptible to a variety of interpretations and translations.
English translations of the title, some more and some less literal, include "Merging of Difference and Unity", "Merging of Difference and Equality", "Agreement of Difference and Unity", "Harmony of Difference and Sameness", "Harmonious Song of Difference and Sameness", "Identity of Relative and Absolute", "Harmony of Relative and Absolute", "Harmony of Difference and Equality", and "Ode on Identity".
The title of the Cantongqi is the same as that of a 2nd-century
Taoist
Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', ...
text on
alchemy
Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...
, which is also known as the
Cantong qi
The ' is deemed to be the earliest book on alchemy in China. The title has been variously translated as ''Kinship of the Three'', ''Akinness of the Three'', ''Triplex Unity'', ''The Seal of the Unity of the Three'', and in several other ways. T ...
; in reference to the Taoist work, "參同契" is often translated as "the Kinship of the Three".
Text
Another translation by
Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett:
Text commentary
Toward the end of his life
Shunryu Suzuki Roshi gave a series of lectures on the Cantongqi. These have been published as the book ''Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness''.
Sheng-yen published a commentary in English on both the Cantongqi ("Inquiry Into Matching Halves") and "
The Precious Mirror of Samadhi" under the title ''The Infinite Mirror'' ((1990), Dharma Drum Publications ).
See also
*
Five Ranks
*
Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi
References
External links
Sandokaimedieval Japanese and translated into English
* ttp://terebess.hu/zen/shitou-eng.html Various English and Hungarian translations of the Cantongqi and another work by Shitou Xiqian, the Sōan ka
{{Authority control
Zen texts
Chinese poems
Buddhist poetry
Chinese Buddhist texts
Tang dynasty poetry